Political Theories

Paper Summary:

Politics is a part of our lives, whether or not we are politically active, and this is precisely why numerous thinkers have written on the topic. This paper examines three of these political thinkers: Aristotle, an Ancient Greek philosopher; Ibn Khaldun, an Arab historian, philosopher, and sociologist; and Niccolo Machiavelli, an Italian political philosopher. The paper shows that, while these three thinkers come from different times and cultures, all recognized the importance of the relationship between the government and citizens, effectively stressed qualities of leadership as the key to the stability of that relationship, but offered very different interpretations of those qualities.

From the Paper:

"Aristotle, the first of the three political philosophers to be discussed, was idealistic. According to Fred Miller in "Aristotle's Political Theory," Aristotle attempted to establish a theory of ideal government. The basis of his thoughts was that the citizens were the most important aspect of a political system. Hence, the satisfaction and happiness of a people with their form of government determined whether that government will be a successful and stable one or not. According to Aristotle, the ability of a government to protect its people and to ensure that the majority of the citizens are satisfied, depends upon the leader himself. That leader, if he is to be a good one, has to have the quality of virtue (Miller)."

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